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Just to let you know that Plan 9 does not sell consumer products like game consoles, bicycles, dumbbells, etc. Our website was hacked and the hacklers created forwarding pages and other fake pages to entice people to buy these products. Plan 9, Inc. is not a part of this activity and has taken steps to block these pages from being found via www.plan9inc.com.

Plan 9 Inc. just passed 25 years old! Wow we took a risk and worked like crazy to make it happen and never looked back! (Ok, perhaps there were a couple of times we wondered what we got ourselves into but made it through it and came out stronger and a little grayer.) To celebrate, we designed a new website to help make it easier to see what we do, what we have to offer, and what free application notes are available too. Go take a look! See if you can find the hidden MOSFET.

Don’t see exactly what you want? Let us know and we can see if we can help you with your needs.

Finally, the third Application Note, “System Design” is available as a download in our TX IP section. It describes how to combine the analysis from the previous two application notes to be used to optimize the transformer ratio and the VDD to produce required output voltage at a safe temperature.

This Application note takes you through the calculation of power dissipation, temperature rise, and overhead voltage for the P1000 narrow band power line communications (PLC) Line Driver. It is the second in a series of notes on how to right size the line driver, transformer, and VDD to achieve your desired goals without overheating your line driver. Find it on
P1000 Line Driver IP Information for Narrow-band PLC Analog Front-end (AFE) Application

There is a lot of thought needed, or at least should be, to designing an efficient and high performing line driver circuit. The line driver and the line interface circuit should minimally impact the performance of the PLC communication channel, just like one customer requested from us, “a wire with gain.” It starts with a versatile, robust, high performance line driver like the P1000 or P2000. Robustness is what is important to design because the load and demands are different from the lab, so the line interface circuit must be designed to approach that wire over a broad range of load conditions such that it seldom become the dominant source of signal degradation. This series of application note topics will help you analyze and optimize your interface circuitry to conform to the often mutually exclusive constraints, standards, and specifications. The first application note looks at designing the interface circuit. I hope you benefit from it, and you come back for the next application note of the series. You can download it from
P1000 Line Driver IP Information for Narrow-band PLC Analog Front-end (AFE) Application Notes)

Here is another feature of the P2000 Narrow Band Power line communications (PLC) line driver, its short circuit protection. Stability is paramount to handling difficult loads. If the short circuit protection is oscillating or effectively disabling the circuit, it is difficult to know what to do next. The P2000 nicely clips the signal with minimum distortion of the rest of the signal and is fairly tolerant of inductance in the line or even your own coupling network. Email info@plan9inc.com for full datasheet.

The P2000 can handle minimum of 2nF of capacitance and remain stable. This is just one of the helpful improvements made to the P1000. Please review the slide, email info@plan9inc.com, and request the P2000 datasheet.

Here is a recent comparison of the MTPR distortion of the P1000 and a fully differential Competitor, aka Competitor 3. Two different challenges are presented where one favors the P1000 by demanding higher current and the other favors Competitor 3 by allowing higher voltage supplies, higher signal levels, and higher transformer ratios. The outcome of this challenge is captured below. The P1000 didn’t disappoint. Check out website and download various information about our products.

Plan 9 is moving its galactic headquarters to 700 N Wickham Rd, Suite 102 in Melbourne, FL 32935 where, with a little more room, we can continue to move forward with our development of new product IP. Yes, we are working on an enhanced version of the P1000, the P2000. While the name is not that creative, the IP and design is. The P2000 includes more direct capacitive drive capability, cleaner short-circuit response, and some additional new features. So, how much capacitance can it drive and what additional features? After we finish unpacking the boxes, I will post more about the P2000’s specs and features.

The full versions of P1000 datasheets are now available on our website. There are three datasheets- Line Driver, RX PGA, and Bias/Thermal shutdown. These datasheets have more information regarding performance and functionality and you don’t have to request them. Download them today, then contact us if you want to try a demo board. Win-win, no concerns, no debate, no trade-offs, it is like the glass is…

https://www.plan9inc.com/services/ipproducts/

Data sheets and evaluation kits are available for the P1000 Line driver and receiver. Designed especially for narrow band Power Line Communications applications but can be use in other applications. Try it out, the side effects may be agreeable.

Plan 9 is 22 this month! We have been creating, designing, and producing production ready analog and mixed signal integrated circuits for many customers around the world for 22 years.

In addition to design work, we started our IP business which is offering narrow band, power line communications AFE IP for sale or license. You can see our website for the data sheets or request one of our P1000 loaner boards to check out its performance for yourself.

Plan 9, Inc.

Melbourne, Florida, USA

See our report illustrating the wide range in MTPR results from different inductors. ( www.plan9inc.com/services/ipproducts/narrow-band-plc-transmitter-ip-information ) It is hard to predict the performance from the spec sheets, so you might have to do your own comparison to able to pick the best inductor to reduce the intermodulation distortion (intermods) caused by your Cenelec A filter. The P1000 Narrow Band, Power Line Communications line driver distortion performance is one of the lowest while driving low impedance loads and we want you to have the full MTPR range without the application circuit overly diminishing the performance.

The P1000 line driver outperforms the two competitors during MTPR testing using various difficult loads. Just shows that you have to test with real world signals and loads, not just what makes the part look good.

In the 21 years we have been Plan 9, we have gotten two types of response to our name, either “cool name!” from obviously science fiction aficionados (which a lot of engineers are) or “why did you name your company that?” which comes from those, let’s say, who are just not as familiar. I will say that when we encountered the latter response, explaining anything about the name usually just made it worse. I don’t think our name ever affected our business relationship. What we did for our customers is what mattered. So, you may ask, who are these Plan 9 guys? Well maybe not all of you, but here is our new Factsheet that will help you to get to know the company with the cool name. Download it from www.plan9inc.com/company .

Check out our results from our competitor comparison test effort. We tested the P1000 TX vs. a nationally know PLC line driver using our LabVIEW test setup. Once the loads dropped to 10 Ohms and below, the P1000 demonstrated that it could provide a lower distortion waveforms at high currents than the competition. The distortion at 1 Ohm load, is better than the competitor’s at 10 Ohms.  The full report is available on our website. www.plan9inc.com/services/ipproducts/

Our Narrow Band Power Line Communications (PLC), Analog Front-end IP is out, it all functions, we are testing it, and the performance is looking like the specs! What more could you ask for? We will be finishing up our evaluation and sending out the complete data sheets to those who are interested and contact us. Feel free to inquire!

The IC’s are finally here after a lot of effort including the fab cycle, the board design, the LabVIEW test solution, and the packaging. See the pictures of the die, packages, and test board on the front page slideshow. We are testing it now, stay tuned for updates.

Three blocks are offered at this time: 1) 3A, 24V transmitter capable of driving low impedance loads down to 1 Ohm, 2) RX with range of 48dB to -12dB of total gain with a high voltage input, and 3) a precision bias circuit used to provide each the above circuits with the required reference currents. Take a look at the data sheets in the IP section. Email or call us for additional information.